Shuttleless loom



United States Patent [72] Inventor John Emerson Burbank [56] References Cited 1] A l N ggg zgw. Connecticut FOREIGN PATENTS [2 o. l 22] m March 17, 969 908,12l 10/1962 Great Bntam 139/11 [45] Patented Dec. 8,.1970 Primary Examiner-Henry S. Jaudon [73] Assignee Scovill Manufacturing Company Anomey-Dallett l-loopes Waterbury, Connecticut a comma or comedic! ABSTRACT! An improved shuttleless loom produces a woven zipper fastener stringer with a preformed fastener element strip and woven wing sections which extend from the web of the tape over the fastener element strip. The improvement includes a divider bar to keep the warps in the upper wing section separated from those of the lower wing section without the necessity of bulky and special harnesses. The divider bar [54] SHUTTLELESS LOOM has a slight up and down movement in unison with a fastener 5 claims 10 Drawing Figs element strip guide which moves the strip alternately above [52] [1.8. 139/11, and below the needle path. A further feature of the improved 139/116 control of the wing warps is a guide which delivers the warps [51] Int. Cl. D03d 41/00 to the fell at a relatively wide angle. The divider bar may also [50] Field of Search 139/1 I, carry a finger for directing the weft thread into proper position around the fastener element strip.

PATENTEDDEB 8I97G 3:545:49?

' SHEEIBVUF 3 INVEN'T'OR' J n EBurbank BY EMH ATTORNEY The operationpfmyjrnproved should be evident from suchupi and down positions takes place while the needle N is in the h wn posjtionsThe rise and fall of the fork 38 is only sufi'lc ntto keep, the coil from being struck by the laying needle' N."whilethere may be a shift of some heddles for the wedwa s at each cycle of. the laying needle depending on the .web p tern desired, the heddles for all wing warps will shift onlyafter every alternate cycle of the needle.

' The h ndlingofthe. warps, Groups Arand B for the upper wing'sec tion, and Grou psC and D for the lower wing section, isldepicted at their variouspositions in FlGS. 3 to 6. The heddies f warps in (iroups A and C are designated Hl and those 7 Groups B and l), H Zln F IG. 3, needle N is laying the weft 7 thread F through ashed ofthetop wing warps, those above the dle path being labeled Aand those below B. in this positiongpart of the bottom wing warps C are in elevated heddles but areprevented from crisscrossing the top wing warp in a regi on near the coil of the fell of the fabric by means of the di- .jvider' bar 31.

The shifts successively to, the other positions in the cycle can perhaps bebe'st explained by ,the following diagram of the four'different positions where up and down refer to the positions of the heddles for the wing warp Groups A, B, C, D;

"the bracketed groups indicating the active shed; and X indicates the groupbeing held outbythe divider bar.

1. In ashuttleless loom for producing an integrally woven zipper fastener wherein a fastener element strip extends along one edge of a woven .web andintegrally wovenf'top and'bottom .wing sections extend from theaweb over thefaste'ner-element strip so as partially to cover the strip, the-warp1hreads in the woven web being designated web warps and thewarp threads in the top and bottom wing sectionsbeingdesignated top-and bottom wing warps respectively, thecombination of: I

a. a weft laying needle movable in a horizontal path for successively laying doublepicks acrosssaid wing sections and web; a

b. vertically reciprocating heddles for alternately movingall of said'warps between upper and lower positions (in-the formation and changing of sheds) which are substantially above and below the path of said laying needle where. the warps pass through said heddles; 1

c. a warp divider located between-said heddles and-laying needle, said divider extending throughthe region "of said wing warps only,1t0 maintain all top wingwarpsalways above, the divider and all bottom wing warps always below the divider; and g d. a guide forsaidfastener element stripto guide it alongside the web warpsandat about the same level as said warp divider. 2. The combination definedin claim 1 andmeans for moving said warp divider and guide in unison between upper and lower positions alternately above and below the level of said needle path. I

3. The combinationdefined in claim 2 wherein said warpdivider is rigidly connected to said guide.

4. The combinationdefinedin claim 1- together with warp deflecting means located between said heddlesand said needle path and engageable with at leas'tsomeof said to win warps and at least some of said bottom wing warpsato eflee themlaterallyoutwardly from-the web warps whereby they ap-' preach the fell above or below the fastener element strip at a substantially wider angle than would be their approach if coming straight from their respective heddles.

5. The combination defined in claim 2 together with a finger flexibly connected at one end to said divider and extending between said top wing warps. and said bottom wingwarpsat the level of said fastener element strip'to about the'fell, the free end of said finger having a sloping outer edge to direct the weft thread being laid by said needle into proper position around said fastener element strip. 

